Cc is for caterpillar

I have been so excited about this theme, because of our live caterpillars.  They are going to turn in to butterflies right in our classroom!!  A week after our spring break, we can also join each other at the San Diego Safari Park to see the butterfly exhibit, which is an extension on our lesson.

Our Centers were: to continue cutting and practicing writing the letters in our name.  Also, the children learned how to use a magnifying glass to look at the caterpillars.

Art/Craft: 1) Draw a caterpillar, cocoon, and butterfly life cycle and color.  2)  Color and cut out circles that glue together to form a caterpillar in the shape of the letter C.  The circles will be put in numerical order.  I'm the type of person who likes paint smeared across a page, so these art ideas I got from the curriculum weren't my favorite.  The children seemed to enjoy drawing the pictures of the life cycle.  The cutting of the circles were difficult for some children :(, but practice makes perfect.


I did have a bit of a crisis with my caterpillars this week.  Two of the caterpillars turned into a chrysalis, a third one was beginning to turn into a chrysalis, but was knocked down by two other caterpillars who started eating the paper that the caterpillars were supposed to attach to!  The caterpillar that got knocked down didn't have a chance to finish changing, so he died :(.  I wasn't supposed to open the container until they were all in the chrysalis stage, but I needed to separate the caterpillars that were destroying the paper.  So far, I've made the right choice.  Let's hope we get four butterflies to release!

Our letter puppet friend is Carlos the Cow and our number this week is 17!!  We are almost up to 20!

For this month, our color is green and our shape is a star (to get ready for St. Patrick's Day).

Enjoy this week's photos and videos:

observing the caterpillars

The children put the numbers in order to form the caterpillar's body.

Ironically, it was rainy this week.  It would have been perfect to do the umbrella theme.

The children are getting better at cutting!

The life cycle drawings

Forming the letters Cc with wikki stix

They cut out the circles with numbers, put them in numerical order, and colored it. 

A team effort to make the wall colorful

The children love to put water on the wall.

Friday's group got to paint at the easels.  It was a gorgeous day!  They shared their pictures with each other and explained their choices.

We learn how letters fit together to make words.

Not all children are holding the pencils with the pincher fingers.  I can't tell you how many websites and books I've read where it says that as a preschool teacher, we should teach proper hand placement.  In a kindergarten orientation, the teacher said that the way a child holds a pencil is set when they are 6.  Recently, I went with the advice from an occupational therapist to allow a child to go through the stages of hand grip and to not push.  One child wasn't ready to use the pincher grasp, so I told him to hold the pencil with a closed fist.  He has better control.  I will work with him so that he can go through the stages of pencil grasp before being pushed to hold it with the pincher fingers.  It makes me want to cry when so many resources say the same thing and no one has a source to back up what they claim as true.

Look at that large hole!  That's what the other two caterpillars did!!  Those stinkers!

These are the two caterpillars that destroyed the paper disc.  I put sticks in the cup, since I removed the paper disc that they are supposed to attach to.  I hope they will turn into a chrysalis.